From doom scrolling to Drvyn

When senior Bo Mwonzora arrived at the University of Richmond from Zimbabwe, he was looking for something different.

Coming from a family of lawyers, Mwonzora had a natural path available to him. Instead, an early interest in economics drew him toward business, and ultimately to Richmond, where the Robins School’s small classes and close faculty relationships stood out.

“I like to go deep,” Mwonzora said. “I want to know people and have them get to know me.”

As an economics student, Mwonzora was drawn to the field because of how it can help make sense of business decision. “Economics is so multifaceted. It has the numbers and the science, but it also has the literature and the people. It brings together all the things I’m interested in,” he said.

One early class he took with Chad Curtis, professor of economics, made a big impact on Mwonzora. “Bo was a strong student the first time I had him in class, and he is a student of mine again in his senior year,” Curtis said. “One thing that has always stood out is the type of questions he asks. He is very curious and likes to push beyond the basic answer and think about how ideas apply in the real world.”

That curiosity has shaped his Richmond experience and his latest venture, Drvyn, an app designed to help users reduce compulsive phone use through social accountability, incentives, and gamification.

Entrepreneurship wasn’t new to Mwonzora. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he developed an SMS-based platform in Zimbabwe that connected more than 15,000 users with accurate information about testing, symptoms, and vaccines.

At Richmond, his next idea emerged from a class project exploring factors affecting student academic performance. After surveying students and conducting almost 100 individual interviews, Mwonzora repeatedly heard the same concern: students felt they were losing hours to their phones.

He decided to test whether they actually wanted help disconnecting.

With encouragement from longtime mentor Andrew Ilnicki, Innovation Studio Director, Mwonzora held up a sandwich board in Tyler Haynes Commons and offered students $5 to give up their phones for an hour.

“A few hours later, Bo texted me: he had run out of money,” Ilnicki recalled.

More importantly, participants said they enjoyed the experience, and many indicated they would do it again for less money. Mwonzora saw an opportunity.

“To reduce doom scrolling, you need to give students a reason not to be on their phone,” he said. “You need a human element in the system. There has to be accountability.”

Drvyn brings that concept to users’ phones. The app allows users to block social media and notifications, make distracting apps less visually appealing, invite friends into shared focus sessions, and create leaderboards that turn staying focused into a friendly competition. An AI-powered assistant can also help users understand their screen-time habits.

Ilnicki said Mwonzora’s willingness to test assumptions rather than simply build technology has distinguished his growth as an entrepreneur.

“Bo is willing to build sophisticated technology, but he is equally willing to step away from it, talk to people, challenge his assumptions, and let evidence change his thinking,” Ilnicki said.

That approach is producing results. Mwonzora placed second at a Techstars Startup Weekend hosted by the Robins School and third in the social impact challenge at TCU’s Values and Ventures competition. With support from the Richmond Innovation Fellows, he also tested Drvyn at an incubator before launching it in Apple’s App Store in June. The app has since surpassed 1,200 users. He also recently appeared on ESPN Richmond with Mike King Biz speaking about the attention economy.

Now, Mwonzora is thinking bigger.

He is working to develop an enterprise version of Drvyn that could help organizations reduce workplace distractions across platforms such as Teams and Outlook while rewarding employees for distraction-free work. He has also begun expanding his team, including bringing on University of Richmond alumni now working at BlackRock and LinkedIn.

As graduation approaches, Mwonzora hopes to begin piloting the enterprise product while preparing for his next chapter at AlphaSights in New York City.

For Ilnicki, that constant forward motion is quintessential for Bo.

“He does not simply participate in opportunities,” Ilnicki said. “He absorbs them, connects them, and applies what he learns to whatever challenge comes next.”